Toll rises in major Asian quake

Islamabad - At least 88 people were killed in South and Central Asia and hundreds more injured when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake -- estimated to be the most intense in the region in the last century -- jolted residents of three countries as far as 400 miles away Saturday.

Forty-nine of those killed were in Pakistan, including a girl killed when her school was damaged in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

Eight died in the collapse of an Islamabad apartment building and 20 others in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and the country's northern region.

Another 38 people were reported dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir, 15 of them Indian army soldiers. In addition, 350 people had sought treatment from area hospitals with a combination of physical injuries and shock.

In one village in Indian-controlled Kashmir, three-fourths of the homes were reported damaged or destroyed.

In Afghanistan, one person was reported killed in Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border. Some houses in the region reportedly collapsed. Damage and casualties were also reported in remote northeast Afghanistan.

"This was the strongest earthquake in the area during the last hundred years," Qamar Uz Zaman, director-general of the Pakistani Meteorological Department, told CNN.

Frantic efforts to rescue survivors were underway in Islamabad, where an apartment building collapsed.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, preliminary reports indicate "widespread damage," particularly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and the country's northern area, Maj. Gen. Shauket Sultan, Pakistani army spokesman, told CNN.

But communication disruptions in those areas meant information was sketchy, he said. A helicopter rescue operation was launched.

Video footage from Pakistani television showed crowds of people climbing on the rubble of the collapsed apartment building and attempting to free those trapped under large concrete slabs. Some of the injured were carried away on stretchers.

The temblor's epicenter was 60 miles (about 100 kilometers) north-northeast of Islamabad and more than six miles below the Earth's surface, according to the Web site of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center.

The quake, which struck about 8:50 a.m. local time (11:50 p.m. Friday EDT, 3.50 a.m. Saturday GMT), was believed to be the strongest in Pakistan in nearly 20 years. Many citizens were still in their beds at the time.

"My wife and I grabbed our daughter and ran outside immediately," Danny Kemp, deputy Islamabad bureau chief for Agence France-Presse, told CNN. Pine trees and light poles were shaking, he said. "I've never felt anything like it."

The quake was "quite shallow," said David Applegate, senior science advisor for earthquake and geologic hazards for the U.S. Geological Survey. "That means the shaking is going to be very intense."

The fact that Islamabad was near the epicenter "means a fairly large urban population has experienced some strong shaking," Applegate said.

There have been some initial aftershocks, he said, "and we expect quite a number more" -- some in the 6-plus magnitude range. Those aftershocks could cause additional damage to structures already weakened by the first quake, he said.

A string of about six aftershocks, some ranging between magnitude 5 and 6, were recorded, said Qamar. More were expected in the next 48 hours.

The quake also triggered landslides, resulting in the closure of some highways, officials said.

Pakistan traditionally has been an active region for earthquakes, Applegate said. Saturday's quake was a "thrust" earthquake, caused by friction between the Indian subcontinent as it pushes against Asia. Although it is the same kind of mechanism that creates tsunamis, the quake was centered far enough inland that there was no danger of a tsunami, he said.

However, Zaman said the region of Pakistan where the quake was centered has been fairly inactive during the last century.

The quake was also felt in India and Afghanistan. In New Delhi, some 400 miles from Islamabad, buildings swayed and furniture moved, causing widespread panic among residents, many of whom rushed into the streets.

The National Earthquake Information Center put the quake at 7.6 magnitude, which it considers "major." The Pakistani Meteorological Department put the magnitude at 7.5, and Japan's Meteorological Agency put it at 7.8.

In February 2004, a pair of earthquakes registering 5.5 and 5.4 magnitude, respectively, killed at least 21 people and injured dozens more and destroyed hundreds of homes built of mud, stone and timber in a rugged, mountainous area about 90 miles northwest of Islamabad.

In January 2001, some 30,000 people died in a magnitude 7.7 quake in western India. -- CNN News

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